Feature Request - Ability to Connect to Self-Hosted phoenixd

k0gen commented 3 months ago

Hello Phoenix Wallet team,

I am a user of your wallet and I appreciate the simplicity and ease of use it provides. However, I have recently started running my own phoenixd server and I would love to be able to connect my Phoenix Wallet to it.

This should be an optional feature that users can enable if they wish.

Thank you for considering this feature request. I believe that it would be a valuable addition to Phoenix Wallet.

Coinomatron commented 3 months ago

What's the point? You would still connect to the channel phoenixd has with acinq. As I understand it, phoenixd is just a somewhat stripped version of your phone phoenix wallet with most of the node liquidity technicals depending on acinq's side.

k0gen commented 3 months ago

What's the point? You would still connect to the channel phoenixd has with acinq. As I understand it, phoenixd is just a somewhat stripped version of your phone phoenix wallet with most of the node liquidity technicals depending on acinq's side.

By connecting your Phoenix Wallet to your own self-hosted server, you essentially turn your wallet into a remote control for your phoenixd server. This setup would offer several advantages:

Transparency: You can see detailed information about your transactions, balance, and channels on the go, directly from your server. This gives you a clear picture of what’s happening with your funds.
Control: You can directly manage your payments and channels. This means you have the flexibility to make payments, receive funds, and manage your channels exactly how you want.
Coolness: While you’re still part of the larger network, managing your own phoenixd server from the mobile app not only can be very useful but also very cool! 😎

At least this is how I see it, and if there are any inaccuracies in my thinking, I welcome corrections from anyone.

Coinomatron commented 3 months ago

Fully agree with the pro's you mention for a portable LN node, but I don't see how phoenixd would provide that. Maybe I'm wrong though and does phoenixd server have some of these advantages. Incidentally, if phoenix would be able to connect to -any- node and a protocol upgrade of the network itsef would provide the automation now provided by acinq (while keeping acinq business model via fees/UI use), that would definitely be a good day for bitcoin adoption.

dpad85 commented 3 months ago

I have recently started running my own phoenixd server and I would love to be able to connect my Phoenix Wallet to it.

There's a misunderstanding here. Phoenixd is not an LSP, not even a routing node. It cannot do what you are thinking of. It's actually very similar to a Phoenix wallet (easy to receive/send), except there's no user interface, it runs on a server, and several mobile-specific features have been stripped out (for example, no need for background processing, or FCM notifications, or iCloud backups).

At least this is how I see it, and if there are any inaccuracies in my thinking, I welcome corrections from anyone.

There's no inaccuracies, but the whole point of Phoenix is to abstract the complexity of managing channels, so that anyone is able to use self-custodial Lightning.

See https://phoenix.acinq.co/faq#can-i-connect-to-any-node-can-i-connect-to-my-own-node

ACINQ / phoenix

Feature Request - Ability to Connect to Self-Hosted phoenixd #542